It wasn’t long ago that we heard that Super Street Fighter IV would be getting a December release. Now we have a price tag to chew on as AM-Net reveals the following about the kit:

HDDROMKIT4セット\1,912,000(税別) Set HDDROMKIT4 \ 1,912,000 (U.S.)

In a currency converter, 1,912,000 in yen is around $23,000USD. That can’t be for a single kit – you might recall that the first SFIV Arcade was sold in packages of four complete cabinets for around $40,000 and the HDDROMKIT4 seems to indicate that these kits are being sold in fours as well. That would put the kits individually around $6000USD per unit and of course for an operator to get a 2 player setup going they have to purchase two since Capcom seems to think that the VS. configuration is perfect for everyone. I’m sure SSFIV will sell to those who already plunked down a several grand to get SFIV Arcade the first time around, assuming they still have the funds for such a purchase but I have a hard time believing that Capcom will really obtain sales on the scale of thousands that they are looking for at such a price. What would make far more sense is to A) offer a decent price for the game and make a build for 2p on 1 cabinet(ex. the new Blazblue is going for a little over $2k per kit) or B) offer the game on NESiCAxLIVE for a download, which eliminates the costs of hardware that SFIV operators have already invested in(it’s all running on the Type X2) and it could be sold at a reasonable price that many more could afford. Seeing how several other fighters are being made available on NESiCA including Blazblue Continuum Shift II, KOF98 Ultimate Match, Samurai Spirits Sen, Battle Fantasia, and KOF Maximum Impact Reg. A, it’s not like SSFIV should be out of the question. Then again I have heard that NESiCA will charge a small fee per game (like CoinUp does on Big Buck online games) which will increase the cost of each play which can be a hindrance on the users end depending upon the price per credit. Of course there is always C), which is available now – get a Game Gate VU and purchase a copy of SSFIV for the 360 or PS3 and you get a 2 player arcade setup for much less.

At the Penny Arcade Expo we saw how a few companies decide to give their games an extra edge by putting their console game into an arcade cabinet. The games which were showcased in such cabinets probably won’t ever see an official release but the understanding that an arcade cabinet attracts attention in a way that a standard kiosk setup does not was certainly highlighted. Now the same idea has moved over to the indie games scene where a small group of independent game developers found a way to grab some attention towards their games at the Fan Expo in Toronto. By using an old arcade cabinet, they converted it to play a number of indie games that were brought to the show and as a result it helped give those games some extra attention them might not have received otherwise. As it turned out, the indie developers got a taste of what an arcade location test can be like, which is different than putting out something like a public online beta. Maybe one of them will consider making an indie arcade title, although that can be a whole new challenge in itself as not everyone makes it there either since you need a way to get the game out there which involves selling hardware in addition to software and that takes funding.

Which takes us on a tangent for a moment, this is where something like Taito’s NESiCAxLIVE digital distribution system could prove useful. It does limit what could be done with the controls which are often one way arcades stand out on their own but it would save a developer from having to build a cabinet, I/O board, PCB and all of that to sell. There are still issues that would need to be resolved for that idea to work everywhere (Taito has the advantage in Japan of having a standard cabinet like Vewlix and clones/variations on that) but I think that something like it could be done elsewhere. Make something like the Neo Geo or Atomiswave, with a standardized cabinet, modular control panels and standard hardware that connects to a robust online delivery system and you could create a new dynamic in the market, which is why I think NESiCA can be a revolution for this industry.

Anyways getting back to the indie games, you can read more about how that event went @ Ars Technica

It’s been almost a full year since we first revealed the development of a new Konami racer called Road Fighters and now Konami is finally ready to bring the game to market. It has changed quite a bit since the first test, adding 3D support and a slick cabinet and soon we’ll see how the 3D additive helps the game compete against other technical racers such as Initial D and Maximum Tune. The new page for the game mentions e-Amusement support for keeping track of player data as well as online competitive play. They also tap into Konami’s plentiful Bemani library for the background music, which might be a way to help pull in Bemani music fans who don’t mind playing racers either. To round it all off, the game lets the player pick from a diverse line-up of licensed cars, six of which are shown on the product page(click the link below). Road Fighters will be released in Japan next month; there is no indication at this point as to whether this will be getting an official international release and that seems quite unlikely given the game’s hefty price tag of around $35k per unit (that is per AM-Net, unsure if $35k is for a package of four units like we saw with SFIV or just one).

We have already discussed the new digital distribution system that Taito has developed (called NESICAxLive) but one area we were waiting to hear more about are the specs for Taito’s new hardware platform, the Type X Zero. Taito unveiled those specs today, here is a rundown:

CPU: Intel Atom230 1.6GHz

GPU/Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9400M, DirectX10 support, 2 video ports

Memory: 1 GB DDR2

OS: Microsoft ® Windows ® Embedded Standard 7

Onboard LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)

Audio: 5.1 ch HD support

OPTIONAL:

2 or 4GB of Memory

HDD: 250GB-1TB or 16GB SSD

You can compare this to the Type X2 hardware here. The system sports a custom BIOS to try and prevent piracy and if I read it correctly, it includes a built-in UPS to handle power interruptions. As you can tell, they aren’t aiming for a high-end machine here but rather something that is cost effective, which other companies have been doing lately as well. The option of adding a 1 TB HDD is probably for the NESICAxLive system so you can store multiple games on one board and at 1 TB it should handle plenty.

In addition to that 4Gamer.net has an upclose picture of the glasses-free PureDepth 3D display that was in the same booth as the Type X Zero. How soon they plan on releasing this technology is anyone’s guess but I imagine that it won’t be long after the Type X Zero is released. Taito hasn’t revealed any 3D games that I know of at the moment but they also aim for other developers to take advantage of their technologies so they could be setting it up for someone else to take the 3D lead. Perhaps Super Street Fighter IV Arcade (which will be at the Tokyo Game Show) would make a great candidate for that but there have been no 3D SSFIV announcements beyond the Nintendo 3DS version so far.

AVATAR made a crazy amount of money in theaters. As such, expectations for things like the AVATAR video game were pretty high and at the end of the day, disappointing for whomever held those expectations. It was panned critically and was even called a flop despite selling over 2 million copies(were the expectations in the 10 million range? 100 million? Higher?). Now some months after the movie was released, Stern Pinball has their newest pinball machine ready to go, based upon AVATAR. Can AVATAR the Pinball machine take the success of the movie and turn that into sales above and beyond other pins of recent memory? We will know soon as Stern begins to ship the game out to collectors, distributors and operators around the world this week. Some people are already getting their hands on the game, as PinballNews.com has published part one of their AVATAR review. No verdict is given on how the game plays at the moment but some of the cost cutting measures are painfully obvious – from a change in the lock bar, to Jake’s static pod to the mech that lacks a figurine(but it does move). Those all may be minor issues at the end of the day and it could be a fun game to play which we will know about soon enough.

The Neo Geo MVS is undoubtedly one of the most important arcade hardware platforms created to this day. The system had support for over a decade and in that time it built up an amazing library of games, some of which still attract attention in arcades today(for example, Metal Slug 5 was listed on the Top 10 Best Video Software titles in Replay Magazine last month). It certainly helped that the games were so easy to swap out and stack up with in multi-slot cabinets. Twenty years after the hardware was released, SNK hasn’t forgot about the platform which brought them success and brand name recognition and so they are celebrating the event. Not with a new game (unfortunately) but with some NeoGeo merchandise – a T-Shirt, a hoodie and an insulated cup. It’s nothing terribly impressive but at least it’s something. If you want a new NG game then you’ll have to look to the homebrew scene for that. [Neo Geo 20th Anniversary – Dengeki Online]

If you feel underwhelmed by that then the Stinger also pointed us to these Asteroids, Centipede and Pong wall decals by Think Geek. Come to think of it, Pong’s 40th anniversary is approaching in 2012. It’s doubtful that Atari would celebrate that with a return of a new Pong in arcades that offers some sort of crazy twist on the original but I suppose we could dream. That or maybe we’ll get some T-shirts out of it.

The 48th JAMMA Expo is now underway in Japan and with that comes a flood of news concerning future projects that Japanese developers will be bringing to the market. AM-Net has a number of photos that they have published from the event, with more to come and here are some highlights including new Taito arcade hardware, more 3D gaming from Namco, Sega’s new Pengo and an online content delivery system from Taito that could revolutionize the industry called NESiCAxLIVE. Read on!

UDATE#1:More System Board Y3 details including glasses free 3D display made for arcades; Namco’s Dead Heat goes 3D; Sega and Namco introduce new IC card system called AiME; added a few more pictures + some videos

UPDATE#3: AM-Net and Sega have updated galleries of photos showing crowds gathering around the various booths. I’ve added a few select photos below, including a shot from the new VF5, The Tablecloth Hour and more

UPDATE#6: Just when you think we’re done, we have more content from the show. Thanks to Fillmore Games, a distributor in Japan for providing more pictures of the show. From them we find out that Vulcan-M and Heat Up Hockey were there as well.